"find: bad option -name "*.user"" while passing variables to find - bash

Question

In a bash script this fails:
fileloc='/var/adm/logs/morelogs'
filename=' -name "*.user"'
fileList="$(find "$fileloc"/* -type f -prune "$filename" -print)"
find: bad option -name "*.user"
find: [-H | -L] path-list predicate-list
but this works:
find /var/adm/logs/morelogs/* -type f -prune -name "*.user" -print
in the same manner:
this fails:
fileloc='/var/adm/logs/morelogs'
filename='\( -name "admin.*" -o -name "*.user" -o -name "*.user.gz" \)'
fileList="$(find "$fileloc"/* -type f -prune "$filename" -print)"
find: bad option \( -name "admin.*" -o -name "*.user" -o -name "*.user.gz" \)
find: [-H | -L] path-list predicate-list
but this works:
find /var/adm/logs/morelogs/* -type f -prune \( -name "admin.*" -o -name "*.user" -o -name "*.user.gz" \) -print
GNU bash, version 3.00.16(1)-release-(sparc-sun-solaris2.10)

Answer 1

This is usecase when you should use BASH arrays or BASH function.
Using BASH arrays:
#!/bin/bash
# initialize your constants
fileloc='/var/adm/logs/morelogs'
filename='*.user'
# create an array with full find command
cmd=( find "$fileloc" -type f -prune -name "$filename" -print )
# execute find command line using BASH array
"${cmd[#]}"

Answer 2

It sounds like you're trying to build the list of names to search for dynamically -- if this is the case, a variant of #anubhava's answer using the array for just the name patterns is the best approach:
namepatterns=() # Start with no filenames to search for
while something; do
newsuffix="whatever"
namepatterns+=(-o -name "*.$newsuffix")
done
# Note that "${namepatterns[#]}" is not quite what we want to pass to find, since
# it always starts with "-o" (unless it's empty, in which case this'll have other
# problems). But "${namepatterns[#]:1}" leaves off the first element, and gets us
# what we need.
fileList="$(find "$fileloc"/* -type f -prune "(" "${namepatterns[#]:1}" ")" -print)"
Other notes: I second #BroSlow's recommendation to read BashFAQ #50: I'm trying to put a command in a variable, but the complex cases always fail!, and also you're going to have trouble using that filelist variable if any of the filenames contain funny characters (esp. whitespace and wildcards) -- see BashFAQ #20: How can I find and safely handle file names containing newlines, spaces or both? (short answer: arrays are better for this as well!)

Answer 3

Lets see what are you doing with set -x:
$ fileloc='/var/adm/logs/morelogs'
+ fileloc=/var/adm/logs/morelogs
$ filename=' -name "*.user"'
+ filename=' -name "*.user"'
Everything seems fine, now, next line:
$ fileList="$(find "$fileloc"/* -type f -prune "$filename" -print)"
++ find '/var/adm/logs/morelogs/*' -type f -prune ' -name "*.user"' -print
find: paths must precede expression: -name "*.user"
Usage: find [-H] [-L] [-P] [-Olevel] [-D help|tree|search|stat|rates|opt|exec] [path...] [expression]
+ fileList=
I think you see the problem, if you execute find '/var/adm/logs/morelogs/*' -type f -prune ' -name "*.user"' -print it will throw you an error:
$ find '/var/adm/logs/morelogs/*' -type f -prune ' -name "*.user"' -print
find: paths must precede expression: -name "*.user"
Usage: find [-H] [-L] [-P] [-Olevel] [-D help|tree|search|stat|rates|opt|exec] [path...] [expression]
What's happening? Well, there's a bunch of single quotes that are in the way, but the one that causes problems is the two lasts, before -name and -print, which cause find to see it as a single parameter, the other can be ignored. So, how to fix this? Don't use double quotes to ask for the $filename variable:
$ find "$fileloc" -type f -prune $filename -print
+ find /var/adm/logs/morelogs -type f -prune -name '*.user' -print
That should solve it.

Answer 4

not an answer to problem, but a poor solution. After getting frustrated, i just hard-coded the search to have full options list.
so it looks like this now: and it works. i had to build some cases, and repeat myself - not a good programming practice, but i was tired of this shell ting....
so for example one option looks like:
fileList="$(find "$fileloc"/* -type f -prune \( -name "admin.*" -o -name "*.user" -o -name "*.user.gz" \) -print)"